t is Opera Gallery Paris’ great pleasure to present the
latest series of French contemporary artist Jean-Pierre
Roc-Roussey, on the theme of the Apsara goddesses.
Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey’s baroque painting style draws
us into a fantastic world of legends and mythology. He
associates Neo-Classic and Renaissance themes with
painting techniques from the Middle Ages and ancient
Oriental civilizations. The artist always gives his characters
very striking shapes...on the edge of surrealistic...while
maintaining such remarkable grace and elegance. Using
a rich palette of indigos, reds, golds and silvers, the artist
magnifies and decorates his subjects costumes with jewelry
and other intricate ornaments.
In the artist’s own words, his work’s only goal is to represent
both the humanity and fragility of the world in which he
lives. He rarely provides a visible background, and yet one
can feel the deafening tumult of a growling, festering world.
Roc-Roussey’s characters are at the center of this tumult...
gazing towards the on-looker as if to charm them, bewitch
them, pull them closer: a true dance of seduction.
With this new series, Roc-Roussey introduces us to
Cambodia’s Apsara goddesses – those magical dancers
that visitors can see on the bas-reliefs of Angkorian temples,
and who served as intermediaries between the divine and
the mortal. Here again, the name of the game is seduction:
what better way to garantee the indulgence and benevolence
of the Gods than by ravishing their senses? And thus our
own senses find themselves overflowing with the surging,
dazzling colour in which Roc-Roussey dresses his sacred
dancers.
Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey, a reputed and respected artist
on the contemporary art scene, has exhibited his work
in institutions and museums across the globe. Opera
Gallery has represented him since the early part of this
Century and it is our great joy to enable the public to
discover an artist whose work is constantly evolving, and
which, with each new series, offers such a precise and
accomplished rendering. His series on Apsaras is faithful
to the tradition.

This series is dedicated to Cambodian dancers. What
path led you to this theme (first a trip then the theme,
or inversely)? What fed your imagination to develop
this series (books, documentaries…)?
I’m familiar with the Guimet Museum which displays an
absolutely beautiful frieze depicting apsaras. I’ve always
dreamed of visiting the walls of Angkor… and the dancers
are the continuation of this dream.
However, I don’t try to render a perfect reproduction
of anything; my interpretation of the dancers is totally
personal.
My trip to Cambodia was a fantastic source of inspiration
for my work on this series. I was blown away by the Khmer
frescos and bas-reliefs that dated back to the 12th Century.
I was able to study them on the walls of the Angkor
temples in the province of Siem Reap.
I also went to the theater and saw some traditional ballets.
Cambodia’s traditional dances are filled with enchanting
gracefulness…with delicate and sophisticated gestures.
I was able to closely observe the extremely codified
precision with which the dancers moved; their baroque and
flamboyant costumes – that both identify their respective
roles while amplifying their movements – and I realized
just how much it all had in common with my artistic style.
I studied this traditional choreography in detail in order
to be able to translate such movement onto canvas as
faithfully as possible.

Have you seen Rodin’s work on Cambodian dancers?
Did they inspire you?
Rodin’s sublime sketches were real life snapshots and
are therefore very different from paintings… Like Rodin,
I would love to have a troupe of dancers at my disposal.
Rodin’s timeless sketches are, to me, the essence of absolute
beauty.
Why has your work always concentrated mainly on
women?
You’re right, it’s a very strong tendency I have; although
I will say I masculinize them, depicting them as warriors…
liberating their power.
I like to think of them as impassive demigods; Mongolian
beauties with almond-shaped eyes, high cheek bones and
ink-black hair.
This is now your second series on extraordinary women,
following the one devoted to Samurai women. Are
you planning on continuing?
Warriors, Amazons, Greek or African goddesses, Samurai
women or sacred dancers… I try not to think too much
when I work; my mind has to be free.
We see a strong parallel between the perfection of the
dancers’ movement and the precision found in your
paintings...Reaction?
The faces were done with great care… as for the rest, what
I really wanted was a large amount of freedom for the
lines and shapes, and to strike a balance between what
I call the breathing and a somewhat violent harmony.
I identify one strong point in each woman’s body and
enhance its strength.
The common factor between the painter and the dancers
is that it takes a lot of work to be able to produce such
an impression of lightness.
Do you have any idea of what your next theme will be?
Not yet… I’d rather travel a bit first. But I do have an
image of female messengers, emissaries, knights… all
in motion.

is fascination with ancient myths led Jean-Pierre Roc-Roussey to the Apsara goddesses,
those famous, heavenly, dancing beings of Hindu folklore. They are beautiful goddesses
and they dance for the Gods, like so many intermediaries between the worlds of the divine
and the mortal…just the thing to seduce Roc-Roussey…
The Apsaras are described on a stone monument of an Angkor temple as “having the most slender
of figures, being gracious, brilliant, exuding the perfumes of the Orient and the most precious
essences, decked out in such beautiful and sumptuous outfits, prevailing over the beauty of the
God-with-the-flowered-arrows, thanks to their incredible splendor.”
Roc-Roussey perfectly depicts this seductive power. However, producing a series of female
dancing characters had to be difficult for the painter. How to render their movement? The artist’s
pictorial style bubbles over with colour: his characters already know how to run, fly, kiss and
attack…but this would be the first time they would dance. Such dancing would have to make
waves and vibrations burst forth, stirring the on-looker out of his body’s lethargy, initiating him
to the pleasures of living.
Moreover, sacred dances are like prayers…they have to be perfect; they are the mythical liberation
of an energy source, an act of ecstasy. To get all of that on canvas, the Apsaras are depicted on
one foot, thus provoking an arching of the back that evokes all the violence of the dance and the
incredible energy required to maintain their postures. Such an ancient dance reveals an “elsewhere”
in which the desires, dreams, imagination…the strange and troubling…are the ingredients composing
the universe of Roc-Roussey’s canvas. But it’s mainly the incredibly fragile balance of the dancers
that gives the impression of movement, describing the complete range of interior manifestations
of human beings. The emotions make us vibrate and want to move…it is this very challenge of
translating what’s happening inside the soul that animates all of the dancers.
But if the dancers’ lithe bodies allow us to glimpse the emotions of love, courage, teasing, anger or
peacefulness, their enigmatic faces help us sense a hidden, unknown existence that makes them
all the more attractive and stimulating, each face inciting the on-looker to search his soul for
something inaccessible. Roc-Roussey gives us Apsaras that seem both far-off and close, which is
what brings such inexhaustible charm to his work.
They dance to please their Gods but also the humans who gaze on them; to seduce, what better
than beautiful clothes and jewelry that lend a specific glow to the massive shapes and bodies,
while sustaining the on-looker’s visual interest? The decorative fantasy world of Roc-Roussey
seems never-ending. He instinctively knows how to capture the spirit of the Orient, its horror of
emptiness. Some of the artist’s Apsaras are depicted wearing very heavy costumes weighed down
with ornamental decorations, and yet they seem so lightweight, exuding such aerial harmony and
majesty. This is the mysterious talent of Roc-Roussey.
The artist’s palette is resolutely colourful: orange, turquoise, pink, vermilion, bright yellow and
light green…powerful, intense…such an excess of colour is a real challenge to their cohabitation:
they provoke each other but the exacerbated colours of Roc-Roussey’s brush make them solar.
The confrontation of such flamboyant colours and immobile movement…what can only be seen
in the body and in the secrets of each character’s face…such a collection of antagonism is the
real force behind Roc-Roussey’s work.